{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/house-moves-guarantee-all-americans-access-abortion-care", "House moves to guarantee all Americans access to abortion care", "2021-09-24", "2021", "2021-09", "Democrat", "House", "CO", "Diana DeGette", "D000197", "degette.house.gov", "degette", "https://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 The U.S. House of Representatives voted today to approve a landmark piece of legislation that would give all Americans the federally-protected right to access abortion care, regardless of where they live.\n\nThe Women's Health Protection Act would \u2013 for the first time \u2013 establish a federal statutory right for all health care providers throughout the country to provide abortion services, and a federal statutory right for all Americans to receive such care, regardless of where they live.\n\nIt would codify the protections currently guaranteed to most Americans by the Supreme Court's decision in the landmark case of Roe v. Wade.\n\nThe legislation's passage comes on the heels of, and in direct response to the Supreme Court's decision earlier this month to let a controversial new law in Texas, which bans abortions after six weeks of pregnancy, take effect \u2013 effectively banning most abortion care in the state.\n\nIf signed into law, the Women's Health Protection Act would negate that controversial new Texas law \u2013 as well as any other attempts by local or state governments to unnecessarily limit Americans' access to abortion care.\n\n\"For people in Texas, the fifty years of legal precedent set by Roe v. Wade is effectively meaningless,\" said U.S. Rep. Diana DeGette, co-chair of the House Pro-Choice Caucus. \"For people in Mississippi, the constitutional right to access abortion care may soon no longer exist. This legislation will ensure that all Americans \u2013 regardless of where they live \u2013 have a federally-protected right to access abortion care. It will negate the Texas and Mississippi laws, and it will guarantee all women in this country \u2013 once again \u2013 have the freedom to decide what's best for them.\"\n\n\"But maybe most importantly,\" DeGette said, \"this legislation will end our reliance on the courts.\"\n\nThe Supreme Court's decision to deny an emergency request to block the new Texas abortion law before it took effect sparked outrage from pro-choice advocates across the country who saw it as a clear sign of where the court was heading when it comes to protecting Americans' constitutional right to abortion care.\n\nAfter allowing the new Texas law to stand, the Supreme Court announced that on December 1 it will hear oral arguments in a Mississippi abortion case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women's Health Organization, that's seen as a direct attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade.\n\n\"Make no mistake,\" DeGette said, \"this is all part of a broader, concerted effort to turn back the clock on Americans' reproductive rights in this country. And the need for Congress to act has never been more urgent.\"\n\nSince 2011, anti-abortion lawmakers have passed nearly 500 restrictive laws through state legislatures aimed at making it harder \u2013 and sometimes impossible \u2013 for women in those states to access the abortion care they need.\n\nThe Women's Health Protection Act would negate those laws and preempt any future attempts by state and local governments to unnecessarily limit Americans' right to seek abortion care. And it would establish a federal statutory right for health care providers to provide abortion services, and a federal statutory right for patients to receive such care \u2013 regardless of where they live.\n\nAt a press conference Friday morning ahead of the vote, Speaker Pelosi hailed DeGette's leadership on the issue and her efforts to get the landmark legislation to the floor.\n\n\"That morning, when we heard the decision, Diana DeGette had the collective wisdom of the co-chairs of this caucus and she gave me chapter and verse,\" Pelosi said. \"Diana DeGette has fought this issue in the courts and won. She's fought it in the Congress. She's fighting it in the court of public opinion.\"\n\nAfter the press conference, DeGette took to the House floor to challenge her colleagues on the other side of the aisle who were opposed to the legislation to change their thinking on the issue.\n\n\"Let me suggest a different paradigm that protects the full range of women's health care freedom in this country,\" DeGette said. \"I'll decide what happens to my body and you decide what happens to yours. I'll decide what's best for my health and my body, and you decide what's best for yours.\"\n\nThe Women's Health Protection Act was approved in the House by a vote of 218 - 211. It now heads to the Senate where a companion bill (S. 1975) introduced in June by Sens. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) has 47 cosponsors.\n\nVideo of DeGette's remarks at today's press conference prior to the vote is available here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIS37Ej1LJw\n\nVideo of Pelosi's remarks hailing DeGette's leadership on the issue is available here: https://youtu.be/7QEZxDp3OU4\n\nVideo of DeGette's remarks on the House floor is available here: https://youtu.be/tKR_3dTGZs0\n\nFollowing are transcripts of DeGette's remarks, as delivered:\n\nU.S Rep. Diana DeGette\n\nRemarks at Press Conference on Women's Health Protection Act\n\nSeptember 24, 2021\n\nToday, the House of Representatives will be taking a stand.\n\nFor more than 50 years, women across this country have had the right to access the abortion care they need because of a landmark decision made in that building, right over there.\n\nThat right, however, no longer exists for millions of women.\n\nFor people in Texas, right now, the 50 years of legal precedent set by Roe v. Wade is effectively meaningless.\n\nFor people in Mississippi, the constitutional right to access abortion care may soon no longer exists.\n\nAnd, sadly, those women are not alone.\n\nIf we don't act fast, women's ability to access abortion care in this country could quickly become a thing of the past.\n\nIn just the last decade, anti-choice politicians have enacted nearly 500 state-based abortion restrictions across the U.S.\n\nAnd, as a result today, nearly 90 percent of counties in this country no longer have a single abortion provider.\n\nEnough is enough.\n\nIf the justices over in that building there won't act, The U.S. House of Representatives will act.\n\nThe decision whether to have an abortion is one that should be made between a patient and their doctor. Period, end of story.\n\nStudies have shown that denying access to abortion care \u2013 just like denying access to any important medical procedure \u2013 can have a profound impact on their long-term on a person's mental and physical health.\n\nA woman denied an abortion is three times more likely to fall into poverty as a result.\n\nWhile abortion restrictions - like those in Texas and Mississippi \u2013 apply to everybody, they disproportionately impact women of color; those working to make ends meet; and people who live in more rural parts of the country where healthcare is less available.\n\nSo, this bill ensures that all Americans \u2013 no matter what their race, no matter their socioeconomic position, no matter where they live \u2013 will have equal access and freedom to get the care that they need.\n\nIt will negate the Texas and Mississippi laws; and it will guarantee all women in this country \u2013 once again \u2013 have the ability and the freedom to decide what's best for them.\n\nBut, maybe most important thing this bill will do is: It will end our reliance on the courts to protect people for the medical care they need and deserve.\n\nThe American public have spoken on this issue and they are squarely behind us, despite what our opponents say.\n\nThe vast majority of Americans in recent studies show that Americans support a woman's right to access the abortion care they need.\n\nAnd, our willingness to fight for that right is why they elected all of us to serve here in the first place.\n\nYou know what, I couldn't be more proud to serve among a more courageous group of people.\n\nLike so many in this country, we know what's at stake in this fight.\n\nWe know that we are standing here today, not on our own accord, but the shoulders of the people that we represent.\n\nWe owe it to them to continue this fight.\n\nI owe it to my two daughters to continue this fight.\n\nWe owe it to the generations of women who came before us \u2013 and whose fearless courage helped secure these rights in the first place \u2013 to continue what they started.\n\nFighting for equality, equity and justice is why we're here; and that's what we're going to continue to do.\n\nThe first step today is to pass Representative Chu's Women's Health Protection Act and we are so excited to be able to do that.\n\nI'm not honored to introduce my co-chair, my partner in all of this, Congresswoman Barbara Lee.\n\nU.S. Rep. Diana DeGette\n\nRemarks on the House Floor\n\nSeptember 24, 2021\n\nMadam Speaker: What we are seeing in Texas, Mississippi, and elsewhere is an unprecedented attack on Americans' right to abortion care.\n\nIt's a systemic effect by politicians who want to roll back the clock on women's healthcare freedom in this country.\n\nTo those who continue to rehash the same outdated arguments, that would put their own personal beliefs on millions of women and say it's somehow good for America, I say save your breath.\n\nIt's not.\n\nAnd for these overheated claims that are being made today on this floor, and the rhetoric, I say that's simply not the case.\n\nMadame Speaker, let me suggest a different paradigm that protects the full range of women's health care freedom in this country.\n\nI'll decide what happens to my body, and you decide what happens to yours.\n\nI'll decide what's best for my health and for my life, and you decide what's best for yours.\n\nWhat's at stake in this fight is not some frivolous benefit, it's the fundamental right of women across this country to decide.\n\nI urge my colleagues to vote yes.\n\nSpeaker Nancy Pelosi\n\nRemarks at Press Conference on Women's Health Protection Act\n\nSeptember 24, 2021\n\nThat morning, when we heard the decision, Diana DeGette had the collective wisdom of the co-chairs of this caucus and she gave me chapter and verse.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:17:01Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://degette.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/house-moves-guarantee-all-americans-access-abortion-care"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.4535542577505112, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}